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'by releasing your fighting animals in the caves. But someone must make the first move towards peace.'

'We are a peace-loving species,' said Okdel. 'But it is difficult for us to think of apes as equals.'

'There are some hard pills to swallow,' said the Doctor, 'and one of them is that the apes have grown up.'

'If your plan is acceptable to the other species,' said Okdel, 'it would be understood that we are the superior race?'

'I am sure that the humans could learn to treat you with great respect,' said the Doctor. 'But these days people don't talk about superior and inferior races. Everyone is equal.'

'Every one of the humans is equal,' said Okdel. 'But we must be respected.'

'I would certainly try to arrange that,' said the Doctor. 'Good.

Then I shall release the apes in the cave.' Okdel's third eye started to glow very gently.

The Brigadier and his men sat slumped against the wall of the cave. The dust from the roof falls had completely settled now, so that they were not choking from it. But with a total blockage at each end of the passageway no air was able to get in or out. The Brigadier looked up and down the passageway, and tried to make a mental calculation as to the number of cubic feet of air they had to breathe, and then to equate that figure with the number of men. If they were lucky, they had another three or four hours but no more. Sergeant Hawkins came over to the Brigadier and slumped down beside him.

'What about getting the lads to try to shift the rocks again?'

said Hawkins.

The Brigadier shook his head. They had already tried that, and found the rocks impossibly heavy to move. 'The less the physical activity,' said the Brigadier, 'the longer our oxygen is going to last.

Try the telephone again.'

'Yes, sir.' Sergeant Hawkins scrambled over to the field telephone, and cranked the handle. He listened. The line was dead.

'The lead must have been cut by the rock fall,' he told the Brigadier.

'There isn't a sound.'

The Brigadier stood up. 'Remain seated, everyone,' he said. 'It's a soldier's job to do things, not to sit on his backside. But the situation is rather against us. If we try heaving at those rocks we shall run out of oxygen in no time. The telephone's been cut. But if we remain here, quietly, not even talking, we can last out a very long time.' He knew this was a lie, but he had to give his soldiers some hope. 'Eventually, our non-return is going to be noted by the people at the research centre. There's a man from the Ministry of Defence there at the moment. He's bound to take action. Other troops will be sent in to dig us out. Understood?'

There was a murmur of understanding from the soldiers. The Brigadier sat down again. Then he noticed the scratching sound coming from one end of their walled-in section of passageway. He flashed his torch in the direction of the sound. Private Robins was crouched against the cave wall apparently scratching a stone against the wall. The Brigadier quietly signalled to Hawkins to follow, then went down the passageway towards Robins. 'Something up, Robins?'

he said.

Robins did not reply. The Brigadier came up behind Robins and flashed his torch on to the wall where Robins was scratching with the stone. Etched into the wall of the cave were crude drawings of animals and what might be men. Hawkins had come up behind the Brigadier. 'Robins,' said Hawkins, 'pull yourself together, lad!'

Robins took no notice and continued with his crude wall drawings.

'Leave him alone,' said the Brigadier.

There was a sudden rumble at the other end of the area in which they were trapped. 'Sir,' said Hawkins, 'down there—more of the roof falling in!'

The Brigadier and Sergeant Hawkins swung their powerful torches in the direction of the increasing sound. 'I don't believe it,'

said Hawkins. 'I don't believe it!'

As they watched the great mass of rocks and boulders that blocked their escape rose up from the floor of the cave, all neatly going back exactly into position to re-form the cave roof.

'I quite agree with you,' said the Brigadier. 'I don't believe it